Off-Topic

To be quick, they didn’t make it to where they were supposed to be before the guards showed up. Jack Ellis was a powerful man, with even more powerful allies. There were a lot of people who wanted demigods gone.

“MOVE!” Nico heard from a distance, and Frank gave him a look that described exactly how he was feeling.

Oh, crap.

Then, the bullets started flying. Like wasps, they seemed to search out for the two demigods in the twilight darkness, buzzing around their helmets, encircling their ankles and ripping through nearby underbrush.

Frank and Nico bolted towards the inlet on the edge of the peninsula. They had about a half a mile to go, and then a short little swim across a thin part of the inlet to Lake Montauk to get to Route 30. The rest of the group would be waiting there, covering them as they swam.

Nico realized Percy was probably going to be helping out with the swimming part, even though he had been instructed by Annabeth to stay safe and to not get himself into too much trouble. Nico, despite his cheeks already being flushed from sprinting, felt himself go even redder.

How is this possible? He thought, I’m over him. I am with Will. William Solace.

He smirked, despite the mortal peril he was in, as he found himself go full tomato red at the thought of his boyfriend. Will was so sweet, so patient.

That was when Nico felt it.

At first, it was a hot pain, like someone was putting out a cigarette on his skin. But then it turned into a stinging pain, and then a pain that made him weak at the knees. Then, the pain rendered his right leg completely useless.

He yelped like a little girl and collapsed, almost tripping Frank, who was right behind him.

“Schist!” Frank cursed as he dragged Nico behind a bush, “are you hit? Where are you hit?”

Nico looked at Frank’s face, and saw in it so much concern. He admired that about Frank. But then Frank slapped him.

“Don’t you freaking pass out, di Angelo!” Frank was stern and yet still concerned. “Where. Are. You Hit?” He enunciated each word like a series of slaps to wake Nico up.

“Calf, my right calf.”

Nico realized that his voice had been reduced to a whimper, and he remembered the pain. That really woke him up.

“AH!” He gasped, reaching for his leg.

“Damn,” Frank said more to himself, like he was deciding something. “They’re not far away, and we need to move. The rest of the guys are on Route 30. Whatever, I’m carrying you. But you need to provide cover, okay? I’m gonna put your chest on my shoulder, and you need to fire behind us. Got it?”

Nico was just wrapping his head around the positioning when Frank scooped him up in a Fireman’s Carry. Nico realized what he needed to do, and drew his pistol. He cursed in Italian as he realized he could barely see anything through the pain and the fading evening sunlight.

He flicked on his night vision goggles, and nearly chocked on his own surprise when he saw at least ten, maybe fifteen burly dudes with mean faces sprinting after them, their weapons pointed at the two of them.

He took aim and started firing. He hit one, two, five of the guys and saw them fall. He felt like throwing up. These were mortals. Mortal humans. And he was dropping them like flies. Then he heard the panic-inducing clink! of an empty magazine.

“Frank!” He shouted, “How much longer?”

“Three—three hundred meters!”

“Can you make it?”

“Barely! You’re heavier now that Solace is getting you to eat more!”

“Shut up! Put me down and catch your breath. It’s my turn to pull weight.”

“What?” Frank asked, puzzled as he slowed to a stop and looked for a good spot of cover. “You can’t walk—”

“Figure of speech, Zhang. Get behind cover!”

Nico felt Frank plop him down on his chest, and the son of Death pulled out his rifle. He locked in the bolt, took a HUGE breath, and found the…nine remaining targets.

Ba-bum.
Ba-bum.
Click…Click.

The bolt seemed to move on its’ own, re-cocking itself with the fluidity of a well-oiled machine.

Each click! brought another mortal mercenary to the ground. Nico didn’t have time for remorse. These testas di cazzo had shot up his leg.

Ba-bum.
Click.
Ba-bum.
Click…Click.
Ba-bum.
Click.

Nico exhaled, and realized that the last three had stopped and hidden, not wanting to get shot by a guy they couldn’t shoot back at. Nico found himself being picked up again, but this time, he had no pistol to shoot back with. He was out of ammo.

But Frank got to the inlet. He dragged Nico into the water, and as Nico had expected, Percy showed up, diver gear and all, and grabbed onto Nico.

As much as the son of Hades hated physical contact, he allowed Percy to touch him this one time. He figured he would rather have Percy grab him once than die because of a shattered tibia.

Percy helped the exhausted Frank and Nico across the river to Route 30. Leo was waiting in the driver seat of a Delphi Strawberry Service van, no doubt retrofitted with bulletproof doors. That door was open, however, and Jason was occupying it, shooting over Percy, Frank and he as they swam for their lives.

Being the son of Poseidon, Percy got them across four hundred feet of cold, salty water in under thirty seconds. His dad must have been watching, because Nico knew that not even athletic, Alpha-Male naiads could swim that fast.

“C’mon, bro!” Jason shouted as he fired another then rounds, “Let’s get the Hades out of here…literally!”

Percy dragged both Frank and Nico into the van as Jason shut the door. Annabeth was in the front seat, but she wasn’t engaging any of the enemies Nico was sure were still there. She was actually smirking, and she said,

“Jason, you could have left one or two alive! That would have made the van ride back to Camp a little more fun!”

“Shut up, Annabeth,” Jason laughed, as he sat back and exhaled a huge breath of relief.

Nico didn’t want to, but as he was lying on the floor of the van, he let out a small whimper. That whimper grew into a groan of pain, and Will leapt from the back, saying,

“Oh, gods! Nico, what happened?”

Nico looked over his shoulder at his boyfriend, whose face was paler than a ghost’s, as his bright blue eyes frantically searched for Nico’s wound. Frank had found a seat, and was sighing hard from the effort. Nico groaned,

“Right calf. They hit me during the exfil. Zhang dragged my podex to the water and Percy helped us to the van.”

Will practically jumped to Nico’s right side, and tore away his pant leg from the knee down, which was known brown from the green camouflage mixing with the blood. Nico paled as he saw how much blood he had lost. He suddenly felt dizzy, like he was going to pass out, this time for real.

"Is that the first time you've torn Nico's pants off, Will?" Leo asked, and then shouted, "OW! Annabeth, it was a joke!"

“Wake up, Nico!” encouraged Frank from behind him. Nico hadn't realized his eyes were closing.

“Don’t slap me again, I’ll stay awake!” Nico replied impulsively, his eyes jerking open, and everyone laughed besides Will, who was still quietly whimpering as he tended to Nico’s leg.

“You slapped di Angelo?” Leo asked, “Frank, I didn’t know you had a sense of humor! Or…on second thought, I didn’t know you had a death wish!”

Jason chuckled as he leaned against one wall of the van, facing Nico, who was sprawled next to the door he had gotten in through. Nico tried to smile, but then his eyes got dark, and he felt his head hit the van’s carpet floor. He heard muffled shouts, and then his head was being lifted up again.

He opened his eyes to see Percy’s sea-green ones, and saw that Percy was pushing Nico’s floppy black hair out of his eyes with his combat gloves. Nico felt himself blush insanely hard as he realized Percy was the one who was helping Nico keep his head up. He also thought that he heard Will let out a low growl. He looked at his boyfriend, but Will just slammed his gaze onto Nico’s ankle.

"How in Hades did they find you so quickly? They must have know we were coming!" Will sounded about as angry as no one else wanted to be, and Percy retorted,

"Aw, it doesn't matter, Solace! We got away, didn't we?"

"Yes, but Nico would be okay if we all had been a little more careful."

Everyone was silent after that. Will wrapped Nico's leg quickly with gauze, and poured ambrosia onto the gauze, letting the godly liquid soak through. Nico tensed, and then relaxed as a cool sensation passed though his entire right side, spreading through his body. Soon, he felt relaxed, and his leg didn’t hurt nearly as much.

“He can rest now,” Will said, his voice steely.

“Got it,” Percy said, putting his pack beneath Nico’s head. Nico couldn’t help but fall asleep. But it wasn’t really falling asleep, it was more like passing out again.

When he woke up, he was being carried by four people into the Infirmary, and he just decided to fall asleep again. When he woke up for the second time, he saw something that nearly scared the life out of him. It was Will Solace, staring at Nico with intense irritation.

“We need to talk,” Will stated angrily.

Notes

Hope you like it, because I love writing it. And yes, Eliza, I will write your promised chapter of Renegade. But I have to do it later. Like maybe this weekend.

Enjoy,
Grafon